New York With My Best Friend :)

Having visited London and Paris, I could not wait to see New York. After spending a lottt of time in Texas, we finally were home for two weeks. Yayyy!!!! By the way, for people who do not know, we live in Virginia, close to Washington D.C.  New York is about four hours (by road) from Virginia and so, we decided to visit New York one weekend while we were home.

I kept confirming with my husband if we were seriously going to New York as he had not booked our travel or stay and it was almost Wednesday. We were planning to leave for NYC on Friday. :/ Oh yes, my best friend with whom I was travelling was none other than my husband. :) Traveling and writing are two things I can never get tired of; you can call them my hobbies! By writing, I mean sharing my personal experiences and not making every article or blog a serious episode. I prefer writing about what I like over the same old facts or evidences that you can find on Wikipedia. I have always wanted to blog but, never had the time, mood or motivation. Thanks to my BFF (best friend for life – husband) for motivating me and telling me how awesome I’m at writing and in general, ;) I finally started writing a blog!! :) I cannot thank him enough for all that he has done for me.:) Anyway, let’s get back to NYC.  

Finally, after a lot of questioning and forcing, Puneeth (my husband) confirmed our travel and stay in the city, that’s right, downtown Manhattan! I could not wait to get there. In seconds, my excitement died as my husband said he was taking me night sky diving in NYC! I know it sounds funny but, I had to believe him as he is crazy. Trust me he can find things like this and surprise me or rather, shock me! He loves himself some thrill and adventure. I on the other hand am a person who will run miles away from thrill, adventure or anything that even sounds similar. No way, I was not willing to skydive. I kept dreading the fact that that we had to do this and literally cried on the way saying he had ruined the trip for me.

The city :)

On arriving there, I realized the night skydive was only to irritate me. Fuerza Bruta was the actual plan. It is an off Broadway show involving live music with breathtaking aerial displays in a performance that’s exhilarating. If you enjoy being crazy, love music and do not mind trying something different, it is a must watch. After watching the show, we decided to grab pizza on our way to a club. Oh yes, we were going dancing ;) That was our Friday evening in NYC.

A glimpse of the show

The End of the Fuerza Bruta show.

Our Saturday started with a walk on the Brooklyn Bridge. It is one of the oldest bridges in New York. We walked the entire stretch, starting on the Manhattan side, ending our walk in the Brooklyn Bridge Park. From here, we got a perfect view of the Manhattan skyline including the two major bridges, The Brooklyn Bridge and The Manhattan Bridge. The view was simply stunning! After the bridge, it was time for some lunch and so, we decided to go to ‘Little Italy’. They have amazing restaurants here. Another thing to look out for here are the graffiti; do not miss the alien baby. My cousin and his wife joined us for lunch after which, we went to Central Park. Puneeth’s friend and his wife who live in New York showed us around the park. A sunny day, lot of people, tremendous display of talents (people dancing, playing music, etc.) contributed to the park’s lively atmosphere. 

Brooklyn Bridge

The Manhattan Bridge 

A view of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Brooklyn Bridge Park

It was around 6 PM, time for us to head towards Rockefeller Centre. It is a complex comprising of 19 commercial buildings, few of which are top of rock observation deck and NBC Studios (Jimmy Fallon’s show is filmed here).   The reason we went there was the Top of the Rock Observation Center. It is an observatory on top of Rockefeller Center, with an ocean-liner style design that offers a beautiful view of the city. We wanted to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, that was not possible as the sun for some reason, did not want to set that day. It was 08 00 pm and he was there, shining bright and refusing to leave. However, we had to, as Times Square and Max Brenner (Chocolate Bar according to me) were waiting for me. :) I’m a chocoholic! Ask me to have chocolates and only chocolates for a meal and trust me, I will. I have in the past and I will in the future. Nothing has stopped me, not even my mom’s yelling! ;) Puneeth kept talking about Max Brenner and I could not wait to go there.  Before heading that direction, we stopped at Times Square. It was crowded. In fact, my mom saw a picture of me in Times Square and had nothing to say about how pretty I looked and instead said “look at the crowd, it’s more than what you see in Bangalore (my birth place and most favorite city in the entire world), India”. After spending some time at Times square, we had dinner and went to the chocolate bar. I had the best hot chocolate ever at that place. After enjoying our lovely drink, we went to Webster Hall, which is one of NYC’s oldest night club and concert venue. It has been operating since 1886. That was it for that day; we were exhausted after the 10+ miles of walking from morning. 

Little Italy :)

Central Park.

The Rockefeller Center 

NYC from Top of the Rock Observation Deck.

The Sun, not ready to set even at 8PM. :)

Times Square

Check out the crowd @ 10 30 PM :)

Sunday was the day I was most excited about. The reason being, a dream of mine coming true. I had three cities in mind that I wanted to visit which were London, Paris and New York and in these cities, a must visit for me were Tower Bridge (LON), Eiffel Tower (PAR) and Statue of Liberty (NYC). I have visited Tower Bridge and Eiffel Tower. It was finally time for Statue of Liberty. Before visiting the statue, we stopped at   Wall Street and clicked a few pictures with the Charging Bull. From there, we walked to 9/11 memorial. This Place got me emotional. It was hard for me to stay there. We walked around for a few minutes and left. Our next destination was Statue of Liberty. A ferry dropped us to the Liberty Island (The Statue is on this island). This ferry first takes you to the Liberty Island followed by Ellis Island. We did not visit the Ellis Island as we were running out of time. We had purchased tickets that would allow us access to the pedestal on which Lady Liberty stands. The museum that told us about the history of the statue was the most interesting part of that day, for me.  Finally, after all that sightseeing, it was shopping time! We went to Times Square and spent a few hours shopping. This marked the end of my NYC trip. It was time for us to head back to Virginia.

The Charging Bull @ Wall Street

New York Stock Exchange

One World Trace Center

Statue of Liberty :)

Me, my best friend and Statue of Liberty :)

I had heard a lot about NYC and could not wait to get here and when I did, I was highly impressed. There is so much to see, do and learn in this city. A crazy number of people visit the city every day. This city literally does not sleep, there is something happening at every hour of the day. You can never get bored of this place. I would definitely be going back, less as a tourist and more to enjoy all that the city can offer. :)